KUALA LUMPUR: Sime Plantation and telcos pushed blue chips to a higher close on Tuesday, enabling the FBM KLCI to resume the steady upward trend for the second day, following positive European and Asian investor confidence.
At 5pm, the FBM KLCI was up 4.97 points or 0.28% to 1,762.93. Turnover was 3.35 billion shares valued at RM2.68bil. The broader market was firmer as advancers led decliners 574 to 383 while 425 counters were unchanged.
Local institutions were net buyers at RM125.9mil and retail investors at RM3.2mil. Foreign funds were net sellers at RM129.1mil, a sharp increase from RM28.2mil on Monday.
European stocks rose and US equity futures edged higher as a slew of positive earnings boosted investor sentiment and after China’s efforts to support its economy spurred higher-risk assets across Asia, Bloomberg reported.
Sime Plantation rose 17 sen to RM5.33 and pushed the KLCI up 2.04 points while Sime Darby added three sen to RM2.46 while Sime Property added three sen to RM1.39.
As for telcos, Axiata and Digi gained seven sen each to RM4.47 and RM4.59 while Maxis advanced four sen to RM5.62 – pushing up the KLCI by 2.63 points. Telekom was flat at RM3.85.
AmInvestment Bank Research is retaining its neutral call on the telecommunications sector due to the continued intense competition in both the mobile and fixed broadband markets.
It retained its buy calls for Axiata and Telekom due to the game-changing merger possibility which could significantly enhance their earnings and market share trajectory.
Hong Leong Bank rose 10 sen to RM18.54, RHB Bank three sen to RM5.36, Public Bank two sen to RM23.98, CIMB was flat at RM5.86 while Maybank fell four sen to RM9.77.
US light crude oil rose 42 cents to US$68.31 and Brent climbed 18 cents to US$73.24.
Petronas Dagangan rose 30 sen to RM26.30, Petronas Gas 10 sen to RM18.40 but Petronas Chemical shed one sen to RM8.80. Dialog lost seven sen to RM3.24.
Press Metal
gained six sen to RM4.46, MISC five sen to RM6.35, Tenaga was flat at RM14.78, Genting Malaysia she one sen to RM5.12 and Genting Bhd three sen lower at RM8.78.
Crude palm oil for third month delivery fell RM17 to RM2,152 per tonne.
However, PPB Group climbed 28 sen to RM16.78, KL Kepong added four sen to RM24.42, and IOI Corp rose one sen to RM4.57.
The ringgit fell against the US dollar, down 0.1% to 4.0660 and shed 0.04% against the pound sterling to 5.337. However, it rose 0.08% to the euro at 4.7517 and edged up 0.02% to the Singapore dollar at 2.9782.
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